Kaymer heads BMW International
BY Bruce Young | European PGA Tour | 2012 BMW International Open | Preview | 20 Jun 2012
The European Tour returns closer to its full strength this week when the BMW International is played at the Golf Club Gut Larchenhof in Cologne in Germany.
Several of the players who played and at times featured at last week’s US Open are in the field including Martin Kaymer, Sergio Garcia and Retief Goosen.
Goosen finished 10th last week in what was an encouraging return to form, Kaymer was 15th and Garcia played well through 54 holes before a last round 75.
Kaymer is playing very well of late regularly putting together top 20 finishes and given he is the leading world ranked player in this field and the leading ranked German golfer then he will be the focus of much attention this week in his homeland.
Kaymer has been inside the top twenty in nine of his last ten starts and appears a very good chance to win.
Goosen finished 10th at last week’s US Open, a generally much improved run on his recent efforts. he did finish 5th at the Volvo World Match Play Championship but in terms of strokeplay events it was an encouraging week.
Garcia too has been reeling off top twenties and although he struggles to get into serious contention he has not been far from it. It has been more than a year since Garcia missed a cut and that run has included two European Tour wins. This would he could quite easily add another.
Garcia finished runner-up in this event last year although that was at another venue.
Former winner, Henrik Stenson, appears to be regaining some of the form which made him a top ten player a couple of years ago, putting together several good solid tournaments on the PGA Tour in recent months.
Like Goosen, Ross Fisher has shown signs of improvement after a slump. He finished 6th in Wales and was then runner-up behind Lee Westwood in Sweden. It has been nearly two years since Fisher last won at the Irish Open but at that time he was amongst Europe’s best.
The Australian contingent is made up of Richard Green, Marcus Fraser, Andrew Dodt, Matthew Zions and Brett Rumford while New Zealander Michael Campbell continues with his attempt to get his career back on track after missing seventeen of his last eighteen cuts.
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